WEBSTER CITY – The defense – swarming and unrelenting. The offense – fast-paced and, yep, unrelenting.

And when both of them are clicking on all cylinders at the same time, well, it’s not even fair.

If allowed, the Webster City girls’ basketball team probably would have waved the white flag less than two minutes into its 32-minute nightmare against second-ranked (Class 3A) Pocahontas Area/Laurens-Marathon Monday night inside the WCHS gymnasium.

Were the Lynx overmatched? Absolutely. But they weren’t the first, nor will they be the last.

“I just told the girls after the game that Pocahontas is in a class of their own right now,” WCHS head coach Nicole Muhlenbruch said after her club suffered a 78-25 thumping at the hands of the Indians. “They’ve just got a slew of girls that are good at basketball right now.”

Faith Meyer scored 20 points and all-state wunderkind Elle Ruffridge popped off for 18 for the visitors, who scored the game’s first 12 points and led by 26 at the end of the first quarter.

The Indians frenzied pace at both ends of the floor took a toll on WCHS, which turned the ball over seven times against the full-court pressure before the contest was even three minutes old.

Pocahontas Area/Laurens-Marathon hit layups, mid-range jumpers and a staggering number of 3-pointers. The Indians connected on seven triples in the opening quarter alone, had nine by halftime and 12 when all was said and done.

Ruffridge, who took the floor averaging 25.3 points per game, notched 11 of her points in the opening period. But she was far from a one-girl show.

Six girls drained 3-pointers for the Indians in the first half, as they built a 51-11 advantage after just 16 minutes of action. Eight girls got in the arc explosion by the time the final horn sounded.

It was the Indians’ defensive efforts that took the biggest toll on WCHS though. Constantly looking over their shoulders even when they were in the clear, the Lynx simply couldn’t get comfortable and the result was 31 turnovers, 21 of them in the opening half.

Pocahontas Area/Laurens-Marathon piled up eight steals in the first quarter, 14 in the first half and 18 in the game.

“Once you make a couple of turnovers, that kind of takes a little of your confidence away,” Muhlenbruch said. “We just kept telling the girls that we’ve worked on this and you know what to do. You just have to attack and go.”

Ruffridge’s scoring prowess was evident, but she spent the majority of the evening distributing the ball to open teammates. Forced to give the dynamo so much attention, and rightly so, WCHS left shooters open on the perimeter and the Indians made them pay.

“One of the refs came up to me and said ‘I bet a lot of boys teams would kill to have those shooters on their team,'” Muhlenbruch said. “It wasn’t like we weren’t out there challenging them, it’s just that they’re really good shooters.”

Faith Meyer canned three treys, while Ruffridge and Ashlyn Weidauer both tossed in two. Grace Meyer added 11 points.

Pocahontas Area/Laurens-Marathon made more shots (30) than WCHS attempted (28).

Cassidy Bultena led the Lynx with nine points and four steals. Allie Flaws, Gabbi Hoversten and Devyn VanKooten all dropped in four points. Hoversten yanked down a team-high five rebounds, one more than Cassidy Nerland.

WCHS didn’t have much time to spend licking its wounds. The Lynx were back on the floor last night against South Central Calhoun.